


Coffee Break

by AngstyHxcker



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of WayHaught, Mentions of alcohol, Nicole Haught Needs A Hug, Panic Attack, Post Season 4, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Wynonna Earp, Spoilers for Season 4, WynHaught brotp, Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26946514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngstyHxcker/pseuds/AngstyHxcker
Summary: Everything in Nicole Haught's life is finally going her way. She's been reunited with the love of her life and her closest friends, she has her dream job back, and she's finally gotten the taste of frog out of her mouth.So what happens when her past catches up with her? Her best friend is there to help her navigate it when it does.AKA the WynHaught brotp hurt comfort scene we all wanted in season 4.
Relationships: Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught
Comments: 2
Kudos: 64





	Coffee Break

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Earp fic and it's been on my mind for months. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> TW: Canon-typical & mentions of PTSD/Truama

It was well into the afternoon when a hungover Wynonna dragged herself into the kitchen. Through squinted eyes, she made out the form of Nicole Haught already in the kitchen. Had it always been this bright in the kitchen? “I know, I know, you don’t need to punish me, the whiskey already did that…” She mumbled. “Or maybe it was the tequila… Or the vodka…”  
  
“I was just going to offer you a cup of coffee.” Nicole explained, causing Wynonna to grab a mug and slump down at the kitchen table.  
  
“Haught, I don’t care what they say about my sister **you** are an angel.” Nicole laughed softly and walked over with the pot of coffee. She began pouring it into Wynonna’s mug.  
  
“Okay, Haught, that’s good.” Wynonna announced when the cup was just over half full. “Haught… Haught, you can stop that’s enough!” Wynonna was suddenly awake as she watched Nicole fill the cup to the brim with no sign of stopping. The mug overflowed and scalding hot coffee began to run over the edge of the table onto Wynonna's lap.  
  
Startled, Wynonna kept up from the table and took a step back. “Jesus Haught! I get it! I shouldn’t have gotten shit faced… Haught?” Nicole was still pouring coffee into the overflowing mug. Wynonna instantly went from annoyed to concerned.  
  
“Nicole?” She asked more gently. Nicole Haught stared ahead like she was frozen in time. Slowly, Wynonna approached and gently removed the almost empty coffee pot from Nicole’s clenched fingers and set it down on the table. “Nicole, what's going on?” She asked, fighting to keep the desperation from entering her voice.  
  
Nicole’s eyes were glazed over, seemingly not seeing Wynonna, or anything. Wynonna noticed her breathing was heavier than usual and it seemed to slowly be increasing speed. It hit Wynonna instantly how naive she had been, Nicole had been majorly fucked up when they got back from the Garden. After breaking the curse that had Nicole puking up amphibians, she was back. She was the same old Nicole they’d always loved and known. Wynonna should’ve known better. She should’ve known that you can’t just quit being fucked up. Even if you think any reason you have for hurting is gone, the wound doesn’t always heal. Sometimes it festers. She should know. She’d always heard alcohol was good for cleaning wounds, but for some reason, it seemed less effective on her own.  
  
With a new understanding of the situation, Wynonna gently placed her hand on Nicole’s arm. Still seemingly unaware of the world around her, Nicole pulled back suddenly, not seeing Wynonna, but one of her nightmares reaching out to grab her. She staggered backward until her back touched the counter at which point she slid into a sitting position on the floor. Her back against the cabinets, Nicole drew her legs to her chest as her breathing continued to increase in speed. Wynonna joined her on the floor, kneeling in front of her best friend.  
  
“Hey, Nicole, I need you to look at me.” She prompted firmly. “You are here.”  
  
Nicole’s distant gaze slowly drifted over to meet Wynonna’s as her mental veil over reality lifted slightly. Never had Wynonna seen Nicole’s eyes filled with so much fear. Not in the face of revenants, vampires, or any other shit life threw at them.  
  
“Nicole, I’m back. Waverly’s back. Doc is back. Jeremy is back. Nedley is back. You’re not alone anymore.” Wynonna’s words slid through the cracks in Nicole’s firmly constructed wall and her pent up emotions from the last year and a half started to push the cracks wider. She was shaking profusely now, gasping and crying. She felt like her mind was being pulled apart at the seams. She couldn’t trust reality, but the part of her that knew it was true, that knew she was safe was the same part flooding her with memories of the past and all the pain she had felt because part of her knew she was safe to let go now. She was home.  
  
But letting go, having to see all of those emotions, pains, and fears rise to the surface wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t some neat and tidy, freeing process. It was torture. Desperate for a lifeline, Nicole gripped desperately for Wynonna.  
  
Wynonna took the other woman in her arms. “Shh… I’m here. We’re all okay. We’re all safe. You did your part. You don’t have to be strong anymore.”  
  
The emotions tore through Nicole so aggressively, a distant part of her mind that felt as though it was simply watching all of this occur in slow motion wondered what could possibly be left. Nicole cried as she’d never cried in her life. Raw screams of terror and anguish. She felt herself getting stabbed in the stomach. She felt her leg splintering into pieces. She felt Waverly being ripped out of her life and pulled into the Garden. She felt the terror of Bulshar’s massacres. She felt the guilt of surviving again and again when so many had died around her. She felt the loss of Dolls. She felt the pain of knowing Alice was far from home. She felt the fear something would overtake the homestead. She felt the worry over Rachel. She felt her failures of not being able to protect the town.  
  
She felt.  
  
And she felt.  
  
And she felt.  
  
She felt every pain and every hurt that she’d locked away over one year, six months, and thirteen days.  
  
She felt pain she’d locked away over a lifetime.  
  
“Hey… Hey… Nicole, listen to me…” Wynonna’s firm voice cut through the static in her mind. Nicole was so lost within herself she hadn’t noticed she was practically convulsing in her friend's arms.  
  
“Nicole, you need to calm down.” If she wasn’t too busy crying, Nicole would have laughed in Wynonna’s face.  
  
“I need you to breathe, okay?” Wynonna was terrified to see her best friend like this. But for better or worse, she felt in a way she understood. Maybe different demons and ghosts had haunted Wynonna, but she knew pain. And she knew dealing with it alone. But now, she got to do for Nicole what she had always hoped someone would have done for her in those early years when people were more likely to accuse her than support her.  
  
Wynonna gently took Nicole’s hand in her own and moved it to rest on her upper chest. She took a few slow, deep breaths. “You feel that, ‘Cole?” She asked in a tone more gentle than firm.  
  
Grounded slightly by the physical contact, Nicole gave a faint nod. Coming back into herself, Nicole was more aware of her physical discomfort. The burning in her lungs, the sting of her eyes, the raw skin of her nostrils. The discomfort pulled her even further back into herself.  
  
“Good. I want you to breathe with me, okay? We’re doing this together.” Nicole nodded a bit more confidently this time and Wynonna wasted no time taking slow, measured breathes and encouraging Nicole to follow along.  
  
The first few rounds of breathing came out disjointed and abrupt, cut short by a desperate gasp, but Wynonna kept going. “That’s it Nicole.” She encouraged before taking another slow deep inhale and gently letting it back out. Nicole was able to get a solid breath in this time before gasping on her inhale. “Good!” The next breath, Nicole was able to match Wynonna’s pace and duration of breathing.  
  
Slowly, Nicole’s breathing started to even out. After another minute, the tears slowed to a stop. And a few breaths after that, Wynonna gently released her hand and Nicole slumped back against the wall, finally calm enough to realize how exhausted she felt.  
  
Wynonna changed positions so she was sitting beside Nicole. She took her hand and waited, not knowing what exactly to say next, but not feeling particularly uncomfortable in the silence.  
  
They sat like that for a while before Nicole finally spoke.  
  
“This was supposed to stop happening.” Nicole’s voice was defeated, tired from more than just today’s attack.  
  
“This has happened before?” Wynonna asked trying to keep the surprise out of her voice. Nicole only nodded as a response. It had never been quite like this. But the memories would bubble up and take the form of flashbacks and nightmares. A pain and anxiety that sat with her soul every second of every day. But subconsciously, her mind knew it was never safe to let it win over. It was never safe enough to lose herself and not be ready to fight, protect, and survive. So instead, she just had to force herself to blink away the hallucinations and stay so busy she couldn’t think.  
  
“Why do you say it was supposed to stop?” Wynonna pushed.  
  
Nicole continued to stare out ahead. “Because you’re back.” She said simply and Wynonna knew who else was included in that ‘you’re’.  
  
“Sure we’re back now. But that doesn’t change everything you’ve been through.” Nicole seemed unimpressed with Wynonna’s logic. “When you broke your leg, you didn’t expect to start walking again just when the pain got better did you?”  
  
“No.” Nicole sighed, reluctantly seeing Wynonna’s point, but not ready to forgive herself so easily.  
  
“And this is no different.” Wynonna assured her.  
  
Nicole nodded absently, remaining silent for several minutes before asking “Do you think Waverly will marry me?” Her voice had a distant tone and her eyes still stared out somewhere Wynonna would never be able to see.  
  
The question was so absurd Wynonna couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course she’s going to marry you. She proposed didn’t she?”  
  
Wynonna’s sense of humor waned as she watched Nicole’s expression.  
  
“She thought she was proposing to the person she left behind. I thought she was too. I thought… with all of you back, with that stupid mess with the frogs over, no more secrets, as sheriff again…I thought I was that person again. But clearly, I’m not.” Nicole said softly, gently motioning to the coffee which had pooled on the floor, now cold.  
  
“Hey. Look at me.” Self-deprecating and insecure. Wynonna knew how to help with that, even if she elected not to for herself. “Waverly loves you more than anyone else in the entire world. More than anyone in any world. She would do anything to be with you and she loves you exactly for who you are. You are Nicole Haught. You are a badass bitch, you’re annoyingly neat and precise, you always know all the rules… and when to break them. You are loyal, you will do anything to protect others, even if the people you’re protecting are ass hats sometimes. You are my best friend. That is who you are. The shit show going on in your brain doesn’t change any of those things.” Wynonna assured her fiercely. Nicole softened, taking Wynonna’s words to heart.  
  
“Thank you.” Nicole said in earnest. “I really appreciate you being here for me… And I’m sorry about your coffee…” She added with an embarrassed smile.  
  
Wynonna shrugged. “Well, you certainly woke me up one way or another.” She teased with a smirk. “But how about next time, you stick to just making me a cup of coffee?”  
  
Nicole laughed softly. “Deal.” She agreed. “We should clean that up before Waves gets back…” Usually diligent Nicole was exhausted and hated the idea of moving from her spot on the floor.  
  
“Nah… We’ll just have the kid do it. We can tell her it builds character.” Wynonna smirked, referring to Rachel.  
  
Nicole laughed a true, genuine laugh this time. “God I’ve missed you.”


End file.
